Non-Classifiable Books

INTRODUCTION Our authorities for the life of Apuleius are in the main the Apologia, the Florida, and the last book of the Metamorphoses. He has a passion for taking his audience into his confidence, and as a result it is not hard to reconstruct a considerable portion of his life. He was a native of Madaura, the modern Mdaurusch, a Numidian town loftily situated above the valley of the Medjerda. The... more...

WHERE THERE IS NO APPLE-TREE The wind is snapping in the bamboos, knocking together the resonant canes and weaving the myriad flexile wreaths above them. The palm heads rustle with a brisk crinkling music. Great ferns stand in the edge of the forest, and giant arums cling their arms about the trunks of trees and rear their dim jacks-in-the-pulpit far in the branches; and in the greater distance I know... more...

CHAPTER I. THE BEGINNINGS OF ARIANISM. Arianism is extinct only in the sense that it has long ceased to furnish party names. It sprang from permanent tendencies of human nature, and raised questions whose interest can never perish. As long as the Agnostic and the Evolutionist are with us, the old battlefields of Athanasius will not be left to silence. Moreover, no writer more directly joins the new... more...

CHAP. I. Of chusing and mounting a Blade. Courage and Skill being often of little Use without a good Weapon, I think it necessary, before I lay down Rules for using it, to shew how to chuse a good Blade, and how it ought to be mounted. The Length of the Blade ought to be proportionable to the Stature of the Person who is to use it: The longest Sword, from Point to Pommel, should reach perpendicularly... more...

CHAPTER I. OF SPIRITUOUS LIQUORS, OR SPIRITS. Spirituous liquors are the produce of vinous ones, obtained by the distillation of these last. The art of making wine is of the remotest antiquity, since it is attributed to Noah; but that of distilling it, so as to extract its most spirituous part, dates only from the year 1300. Arnand de Villeneuve was the inventor of it, and the produce of his Still... more...

ANCIENT AND MODERN METHODS. The art of making lace in one form or another has existed from the earliest ages. There are Scriptural references to various web-like fabrics, which were of rude construction, no doubt, but whose general characteristics were identical with those productions of modern skill which have for centuries been known as lace. Homer and other ancient writers constantly mention... more...

SECTION I."By Nature's swift and secret working handThe garden glows, and fills the liberal airWith lavish odors.There let me drawEthereal soul, there drink reviving gales,Profusely breathing from the spicy grovesAnd vales of fragrance."—Thomson. Among the numerous gratifications derived from the cultivation of flowers, that of rearing them for the sake of their perfumes stands... more...

Having, when young, imbibed a particular inclination to study the culture of the cucumber and melon, under the direction of my father, whose character as an early framer was in high repute, I assiduously tried every experiment which was calculated to improve upon his system, by bringing them to a more complete state of perfection. In marking the progress of their growth, I usually committed to writing... more...

STUDY I. FOREWORD AND APPEAL. Memory Verse: "And they that are wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever."—(Dan. xii, 3.) Scripture for Meditation: Matt. vi, 19-23; Rev. iii, 14-22. Fred B—— was a medical student. He was stricken, with that dreaded scourge, consumption. The physicians advised a trip to the... more...

PREFACE Forefront in this book, because forefront in the author’s heart and desire, must stand a plea for the restoration to the greatest mountain in North America of its immemorial native name. If there be any prestige or authority in such matter from the accomplishment of a first complete ascent, “if there be any virtue, if there be any praise,” the author values it chiefly as it may give... more...